


Scents of home

by espritneo



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Gen, M/M, Maccachin's perspective, POV Animal, Pre-Series, set during the series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 13:32:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9237257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/espritneo/pseuds/espritneo
Summary: Maccachin's human has changed many, many times in his life.





	

Maccachin’s human has changed many, many times in his life.

 

1.

Maccachin remembers his human first and best as a warm blanket. He used to sit on his human every day. Victor wasn’t always home. He’d leave for periods of time, but nights were theirs and Maccachin’s home was on his human’s lap, wrapped in fine hair, strong, skinny arms, and surrounded by the smell of pine and flowers.

His human liked to read. Maccachin learned to enjoy laying still and listening.

Maccachin changed more than Victor at first. Although his human was always bigger than him, sometimes Maccachin surprised them both by being big enough to topple Victor over or pin him down when he got extremely happy. He thought Victor got happier in those times too. He laughed harder and gave Maccachin hugs and kisses before laying back and letting Maccachin decide what they did next. Maccachin stopped being enveloped by his human – they couldn’t quite manage it, no matter how much Maccachin curled towards his tail – so Maccachin ended up being Victor’s blanket as his human read.

His human had long hair and it was something Maccachin could play with just as much as he could playfully bite Victor’s fingers and shower affection on his face. His hair would share space with Maccachin on his human’s chest and he liked to rub his nose against it. It was silky and sometimes it felt nice against his cold nose.

Other times, he tried and he ended up sneezing and he’d tuck his nose against the bone under Victor’s chin instead and take a nap.

Their home changed twice, from a large house he wasn’t allowed to explore, to a noisy hallways with open doors and a neverending supply of petting, to a quiet set of rooms made of glass and metal next to a staircase that Maccachin knew best.  

Here, Maccachin had space for his own things that he didn’t share with Victor. They had room for a large bed to sleep in, a sofa to cuddle on, and their own place to eat, just the two of them. Maccachin knew a long hallway lay outside their rooms, but Victor never took him down and the doors were never open and the quiet was disturbing. They took the stairs up and down several times a day and Maccachin preferred reaching the streets at the bottom. The air was louder, he could smell the tang and the endless humans, and although there were fewer hands petting him, sometimes, a novel smell introduced itself and he got a scratch for his troubles.

2.

His human was a lot like Maccachin. They both liked to chase after each other and got easily distracted and loved to shower Yakov and Georgi with affection. Maccachin’s favorite outings usually ended up in the brisk cold of the rink, with Victor pink and wired from their run across the city, the two of them loaded down with their essentials – skates and clothes for Victor, a water bowl and treats for Maccachin. There, at the rink, Maccachin would stay close to their belongings and receive attention from people that all smelled similar to his human – cold, sharp and clean – and that he’d known all his life.

It was like getting to come home.

But Victor was a lot like Maccachin and he changed, too. He grew taller. His arms were no longer skinny and Maccachin didn’t have to worry about suffocating him with his weight. There was more room for Maccachin to lay on his chest, too, and that made him more comfortable.

Victor was big enough to wrap himself around Maccachin again and that was the best part. Victor sometimes smelled like St. Petersburg – layers and layers of different scents – especially after being away, but once that washed off, he still smelled like pines and flowers of their favorite forests.

3.

One day, he came home and his shoulders were bare.

Maccachin refused to go near him.

His human was away more often than not and he didn’t seem to think much of it. He stopped reading and stopped being at home for dinner and was always on his phone.

Maccachin was almost always alone and his human almost never smelled like himself.

4.

They moved again. This time, Maccachin’s entire world changed.

He spent a long time in confinement, surrounded by the cacophany of unknown creatures and scents. His kennel – never used for long periods – kept being shifted and lifted, taken from one dimly lit, vibrating metal room to another. The transitions were the only novel experiences. He could see bright, searing daylight shimmering on the concrete as he trundled over it. Next, it was moonlight, humid air, and being carried between two strange humans to wait in a room with a roof but no walls.

Finally, he saw Victor and he was so mad and excited he bowled his human over in a way he hasn’t done in a very, very long time. And Victor was just as excited to see him that he forgot he was angry and they spent a long time hugging and kissing.

But this time, Victor doesn’t let him decide what they’ll do next. He’s leashed and they’re moving again, over a landscape that Maccachin doesn’t know how to categorize. There’s too much of the wrong shades and hardly any tall buildings and lots of wispy wildlife growing out of the ground, taller than Maccachin.

Their new home is the biggest place Maccachin has ever seen. Bigger than the house when he was a puppy because he only knew their room and the door.

Here, he ran _everywhere_. And no one told him to stay. He nosed outside with the strange fences made of plants and the ground that asked him to walk a little differently. There were new rocks and plants and structures that he introduced himself to.

The doors behaved a little differently, but there were more people to open them for him.

He trod up and down stairs and sniffed the organic floors and tried to find where they ended except he realized _they never ended_ ; they abruptly transitioned into dirt.

It never got old because Victor occupied most of his days. They rose early together, went on runs together, cuddled on the _floor_ together, explored together, and he guarded their belongings at the rink when Victor was busy. There were rarely any pets in it for him but strange scents liked to watch him from a distance.

They had breakfast and dinner together and they slept together. They spent so much time together that Maccachin realized Victor smelled like pines and flowers and the same scents that came out of the kitchen.

He smelled a little bit like their new friend.

4.

Maccachin’s world now had two primary scents: his human and his new human.

His new friend liked many of Maccachin’s favorite activities. They went on night runs together. Maccachin appreciated that Yūri went easy on him for the first many days because he was old and he needed to practice before exerting himself on really long runs.

Yūri and he liked to nap together. Maccachin liked Yūri’s back. He’s not as broad as Victor, so his chest isn’t appealing, but his back is nice and firm and there’s a soft, gentle curve that Maccachin liked to put his head on. Yūri liked to sleep almost as long as Maccachin did in the mornings and he doesn’t mind trading night partners since he got to be with Victor during the day, too.

Sometimes, Yūri left the bed in a rush and without moving the blanket back and that was pretty annoying.

What Maccachin liked most of all was getting to lay under the table _and_ be in Victor’s lap while they ate. Sometimes, Victor would pass him food and he’d understand one of his scents a little more.

Yūri would always rest one hand on his fur, sometimes stroking, sometimes scratching, other times simply touching. Yūri rarely cuddled with him, more often than not, they’d just lie comfortably, but Maccachin was still getting to know his smell: light and sweet, those uncategorized kitchen scents, and a hint of pine and flowers.

Maccachin thought this might be his favorite home.

5.

His humans went away for a long time. Maccachin got himself into trouble once and Victor was there, smelling like one person, but complicated: pine, flowers, Yūri, fear, sadness. The last two gradually went away, extinguished completely when they meet Yūri in a building of glass and metal.

He was fussed over and loved and with his humans for a short while. Both humans played harder and rested less frequently than they had in the past, their bodies focused and intent. Yūri often came home bruised from the ice.

In the winter, he was left alone again, but not for long. And this time, his humans returned as one creature.

They smelled nearly identical and they were always attached. VictorandYūri held hands in the house, in their rooms, outside, at the rink, at the beach. Maccachin rested between them at breakfast, lunch and dinner, their joined fingers on his fur while they ate with opposite hands. Maccachin lay across their laps on the floor, in the bed, while Victor read aloud and held Yūri close.

When they left him on their trips to Fukuoka, Maccachin found it was really easy to topple VictorandYūri by aiming for the weak spot and he did it _every. single. time._ It seemed to make VictorandYūri even happier to see him and they let him get them all tangled up on the genkan amid all these strangers’ shoes.

They separate and split into Victor and Yūri most often around the ice and on runs. Maccachin was a little disappointed. He wanted to know how a VictorandYūri would run.  

Maccachin liked being around VictorandYūri. Their scent made ears perk and tongue loll and reminded him of being chased by Victor when they were young. It made him want to bark more and wag his tail and encourage them to go outside with him because the sun was nice and the smells were inviting and they should go explore.

6.

Eventually, when Maccachin is older and he can see the color of his muzzle begin to fade, VictorandYūri went back to being just Victor and just Yūri. They don’t stop smelling like each other, and they don’t stop smelling like VictorandYūri, and that was a new and nice kind of change as well with its own perks.

But that’s a different story.

**Author's Note:**

> I just wrote 1.8K about a _dog_. The best dog. Because I realized I had written pages and pages and pages of background for Soundbytes and not a single word on Maccachin. Then I started thinking about what role Maccachin plays and he's really been a symbol that tied the two together, for me. Until I learned about the banquet, Maccachin paved the way for their relationship, in my mind. 
> 
> If only I could put that much effort into my dissertation. Alright, that's it, I'm done. I'm so happy Maccachin is alive and he gets his VictorandYuuri creature to shower him with love every day.
> 
> Come say hi on [my tumblr](http://espritneo.tumblr.com). Thanks for reading!


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